BT Mind Champion of the Year Award

BT Mind Awards 2007:
Stephen Fry shortlisted for BT Mind Champion of the Year Award

Actor and comedian Stephen Fry has been nominated for the BT Mind Champion of the Year Award. He joins mental health activists, campaigners and fundraisers in the running for the prestigious prize, which commends those who have challenged discrimination against people with mental health problems.

The winner will be announced at the BT Mind Awards ceremony, hosted by Mind's President Lord Melvyn Bragg on Wednesday 16 May at Glazier's Hall, London. Other awards will be presented for BT Mind Book of the Year, BT Mind Journalist of the Year and BT Mind Student Journalist of the Year.

For the first time, Mind is inviting the public to vote for their favourite BT Mind Champion of the Year. In previous years, winners have included Frank Bruno, The Archers and mental health campaigner Peter Campbell.

This year's nominees include:

Stephen Fry
Stephen's highly acclaimed documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive drew mass attention to the experience of living with bipolar disorder. He introduced the programme with humour, gentleness, great understanding and optimism. He has challenged the stigma surrounding bipolar disorder and has helped to increase public understanding.

Derek Hutchinson
A survivor of psychosurgery, Derek has been an activist around the issue for almost 30 years. He established the group SCALPS (Survivors' Campaign Against Lobotomy and psychosurgery), and is known internationally for his campaigning work. In the last year, Derek has been campaigning for a monument in memory of the 2,800 people who died and are buried in unmarked graves at the site of the old High Royds Asylum near Leeds.

Jo Huxster and Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent (The tuk tuk girls)
Jo and Antonia are two inspiring fundraisers who decided to raise money for Mind by driving a Thai tuk tuk from Bangkok to Brighton. The firm friends decided to raise money for Mind because of Jo's own experience of depression and self-harm. Through their 12,500 mile jaunt they have managed to raise £37,000, but, more than that, they have reached out to the public, fighting for Mind's cause, and raising awareness of what it means to be a young woman with a mental health problem.

Louise Pembroke
Louise is an outstanding campaigner and educator in the fields of self-harm and hearing voices. She has been campaigning for almost 20 years and takes an unusual approach to raising awareness and promoting understanding through the creative arts. In her DVD 'Dedication to the seven: hearing voices in dance' she performs her experience of hearing voices and her coping mechanisms to dance.

Patrick Wood
In his role as a training and development worker for the UK Advocacy Network, Patrick has toured the country training survivors in advocacy skills and supporting survivor groups. Over the past 11 years his advice and support has helped many people and the training materials he has developed are now widely used nation-wide. Through his love of music and art he encourages people to see themselves as far more than just service users.

Simon Heyes
Simon, a member of South Somerset Mind and Speak Up Somerset has written one of the best user guides to recovery. 'The art of recovery - a pocket guide to recovering from mental illness' is pragmatic and practical. Simon takes the perspective that recovery is not about finding a miracle cure or returning to how things used to be, he encourages the reader to find a better, healthier and more sustainable way of living that recognises the past and accepts the limitations of the present. He provides people with hope for a better future.

This year Mind is delighted to announce that BT is sponsoring the Mind Awards. BT's work on employee mental health makes them a leader in the field for promoting mental wellbeing in the workplace.

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Notes to editors
For further information or interviews, please call Senior Press Officer Alison Kerry on 020 8522 1743 or email a.kerry@mind.org.uk